Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
Conventional process control systems routinely include a large number of field devices, such as sensors and actuators. Communications with field devices often occur using various standard or other protocols, such as HART, FOUNDATION Fieldbus, or Control Net. These types of protocols often support the use of a structured language called a Device Description Language (“DDL”). A DDL language can be used to create device description or electronic device description (“DD/EDD”) files, which describe the online functional behavior of the field devices.
The DD/EDD files can be interpreted by a host application and used to generate user interfaces. The user interfaces allow personnel to configure and diagnose the field devices. In conventional systems, the host application typically loads an entire DD/EDD file for a field device and then presents a user with the complete configuration capabilities of the field device.